The Liberal government is rebranding its carbon tax rebate in an effort to make it clear to Canadians where the funds are coming from.
Previously called the “Climate Action Incentive Payment,” the government announced Wednesday that it will now be called the “Canada Carbon Rebate.”
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said Wednesday said he thinks the rebranding will make it easier for Canadians to identify the rebate when it is deposited into their accounts.
“The previous name was a bit difficult to understand and even for many people to remember. So this will likely make it easier,” he told reporters outside the House of Commons.
The quarterly rebate payments go out to every tax-filing adult household in the eight provinces where the federal carbon tax applies: Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador.
The Canada Revenue Agency says 81 per cent of Canadians get their rebate through direct deposit, while cheques are mailed to the other 19 per cent.
But about a quarter of Canadians eligible for rebates don’t believe they actually receive them, according to an Angus Reid poll released in November.
That may have been due to variations in how banks have labelled the payments. In the past, rebates have been deposited in bank accounts under nondescript names like “CANADA FED” or “DN CANADA FED/FED” or “EFT Deposit from CANADA.”
“We’re working with financial institutions to make sure that it’s labelled properly so people actually know what it is. In many cases, it was very difficult for people to actually see they were getting it,” Guilbeault said.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre — whose party has a comfortable polling lead on the governing Liberals — has made opposition to the carbon tax one of his key points of attack against the Liberals.
Poilievre argues that the tax makes life less affordable and his attacks may be gaining traction. November’s Angus Reid poll found that 42 per cent of Canadians strongly oppose the carbon levy and would support abolishing it.
The Liberals have pushed back against Poilievre, arguing that most Canadians receive more money back through the rebates than they pay through the carbon tax.
On Wednesday, the government also unveiled new rebate amounts that are set to take effect on April 1, the same day the tax is set to increase.
Canadian families will get between $760 and $2,160 in carbon price rebates this year as the carbon price itself gets hiked another $15 per tonne.
The price increase will add another 3.3 cents to a litre of gasoline and about 2.9 cents to a cubic metre of natural gas.
Most families will see a bigger rebate as a result — $64 more every three months in Alberta and $36 more in Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
But the federal government’s move to lift carbon pricing from heating oil for three years, and last years’s overpayments, mean people in all Atlantic provinces except New Brunswick will see a dip in the amount they receive.